CIPR event brings together more than 70 local professionals and students at UCLan

A recent Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) internal communications event hosted by Lancashire Business School (LBS), brought together more than 70 local professionals and students keen to hear from two of the UK's leading thinkers on the subject of internal communication (IC).

Dr Mary Welch, Senior Lecturer in Communication Management at UCLan and Alison Ramsay, Director of Communications and Business Development at BAE Systems, shared their experiences of IC theory and practice in the workplace.

Mary, who was a communications professional before joining academia more than a decade ago, spoke of her road to communication and engagement research.

She said: "As a practitioner, I had no access to the public relations and communication management theory I discovered once I became an academic."

Mary’s research findings in both IC and employee engagement have provided a significant contribution to how academics and practitioners define both concepts currently. Her suggested IC definition is being cited and discussed by a number of leading academics in the field.

Alison shared a spirit-lifting IC campaign that is running for the second year in a row at BAE Systems and is a great success. The ‘Stop and Think’ campaign takes an innovative approach to boost staff engagement by putting employees’ voices first.

Alison said: “As an IC practitioner, you’ve got to go and listen to your employees rather than dictate what they want.”